Turkey: Eyes on prosecutors as complaints against coup leaders near 1,000

All eyes have now turned to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office to initiate legal action against the leaders of the Sept. 12, 1980 coup d’état, as nearly a thousand criminal complaints have now been filed against the coup leaders since a referendum that made possible such action was held last year.

The people of Turkey took a landmark step in September of last year and grasped the opportunity to come to terms with the dark years of the ‘80s by approving a referendum for a 26-article constitutional reform package that paved the way for the trial of the perpetrators of the Sept. 12, 1980 military coup by abolishing Article 15 of the Constitution. Until then, this article had given immunity to leaders of the coup.

Since the referendum, many victims of the coup as well as anti-coup groups have been waiting for legal action to be initiated against the coup leaders. On Sept. 13, 2010, the day after the referendum, many individual victims and civil society organizations applied to prosecutors’ offices demanding that the former president and chief of General Staff, Gen. Kenan Evren, and his collaborators face trial for crimes against humanity, which took place primarily between 1980 and 1983.

In a move to consolidate all these complaints, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office sent a circular to all prosecutors’ offices across Turkey in January asking that all complaints filed against the 1980 leaders be forwarded to Ankara.

However, no legal process has yet been launched against the coup leaders. The prosecutor’s office is expected to make a final decision following debates on whether it is possible to try these generals for their crimes. The coup generals expected they were protected by the statute of limitations, which expired in 2000, 20 years after the military takeover. However, with an indictment filed by former prosecutor Sacit Kayasu in 2000, the statute of limitations for the coup generals was extended a further 10 years. Some argue that the statute of limitations expired in 2010, but many others strongly refute these arguments. Opponents say that staging a coup is a crime against humanity and that the statute of limitations does not apply to this crime.

The Sept. 12, 1980 military coup was the bloodiest and most well-planned coup during Turkey’s democratic journey, which has been stalled on a number of occasions by military interventions in politics.

The coup was a source of great suffering for many citizens. A total of 650,000 people were detained during this period, and files for 1,683,000 people were recorded at police stations. A total of 230,000 people were tried in 210,000 cases, mostly for political reasons. A further 517 people were sentenced to death, while 7,000 people faced charges that carried a sentence of capital punishment. Of those who received the death penalty, 50 were executed. As a result of unsanitary living conditions and torture in prisons, a further 299 people died while in custody. One hundred forty-four people died in circumstances where the perpetrators could not be found, while 14 perished during hunger strikes, 16 were shot to death while allegedly trying to escape from prison and 43 people committed suicide.

Source: Today's Zaman, March 4, 2011

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